Well, my brewing partner and I sampled some of our homebrew today.........very good stuff. We will be having our tasting party in a little over a month..............damn, got to get some little ole bitty glasses to keep all that homebrew from disappearing that very night. Got to get the menu worked out too.

Brewer, I put your sample (and one for Mark) of the homebrew and a couple of Terrapin Ales for you and Mark in the mail on Thursday. I expect it should arrive on Monday or Tuesday.

I am very happy with our homebrew.........not quite as hoppy as CA but still an unqualified success in my opinion!

Life is good for people who make their own beer, drink bourbon, and tell lies! One should not abuse the privilege of lying.............only doing so if it is fun or convenient!!

Do not go gentle into that good night,Old age should burn and rage at close of day;Rage, rage against the dying of the light. - Dylan Thomas

The beer is ready now, although you might want to let it rest upright for a couple of days to settle from the trip. It has been in the bottle for just over a month and has a beautiful head when poured.

I hope you and Mark enjoy it!

Do not go gentle into that good night,Old age should burn and rage at close of day;Rage, rage against the dying of the light. - Dylan Thomas

The package arrived yesterday. As I opened it up, I felt a bit of moisture and thought this isn't good. As I proceeded, there was more moisture. Unfortunately, as I unpacked, I discovered that the moisture was from 1 of your homebrews! Damn, that is such a shame, but nonetheless, I do appreciate you sending these up, and all other items were intact. So, we will enjoy them, and I guess I may have to wait till I see Mark, so that we can split the remaining homebrew. Thank you Mike!

Definitely Bob, we'll have to try that one together! I am interested to see how a home brewed CA came out. Thanks again Mike for sending the package up, I'm going to call Bob in a bit and see what we can put together for your delivery

Mark & I got to try the surviving bottle of your homebrewed CA yesterday. Upon pouring, it had a nice head, and good color. Aroma was also very nice with good hop presence. The hops weren't as evident in the taste, but that's not to say it didn't taste good, cause it tasted excellent! I'm wondering what kind of hops you used, in what amounts & when they were added to the brew. Maybe some additional bittering hops would have contributed nicely to the finished product. My hat's off to ya Mike for a good job!

We also tasted the Terrapin Rye that you sent, and that also was a damn fine beer. Next time I'm in GA, I'm gonna have to find some of those brews. I'll have to look up you & Barleycorn as well!

Mike, please forgive me for taking so long to finally reply to this as well! What a great day we had that Saturday. Bob brought over the mix of brews you had sent him including your celebration ale. You did a very good job on creating a nice duplicate. Although I really shouldn't say duplicate, as yours was unique in your own way, naturally. I found the smell to be nearly identical and the taste was almost spot on but maybe a bit less hoppy. Still, hats off to you Mike.

We also had that Terrapin which was some grrreat stuff. We didn't get to try the other ones because Bob was a bit under the weather but we've got the split and I'm sure we'll talk about then soon enough.

Bob also brought over a bottles of that Bourbon County Stout. Wow-Wee I loved that stuff! Mike V. or maybe someone else in KY who would be so kind, pick me up a twelver and I'll gladly pay for the shipping and your troubles. I usually don't care for stouts much but that one breaks the damed mold!

Well, rather than just posting this in the Watercooler now since it is kinda late I'll include pics from that day right here. Naturally the day consisted of beer and various pours of bourbon. We had Danish baby back ribs for dinner and for dessert Bob and nancy brought over this awesome cake from a German bakery out where they live. And the message they had put on top seemed to have worked since less than 3 days later (and 2 weeks early) little 'peanut' arrived! Thanks again for stopping by Bob and Nancy, as always we had a great time! In a few weeks when I'll feel safer traveling with him you know we're coming out there. And I think I'll make a pit stop by Luka's house as well! Gotta see what's up with Joe...

Mark, once again congratulations on the arrival of 'peanut'. I know of no other experience (even drinking bourbon) that compares to having, loving, and enjoying a child. You grow as they do, even if they sometimes age you considerably with their antics. I am happy for you!

Glad you enjoyed the beer! Tonight I am hosting our 'Pull My Finger and You're Dead!' tasting party. The wives don't seem so keen on the 'Pull My Finger Brewhaha' title us men bestowed on our brewing get togethers. I am doing a London Broil marinated for a couple of days in Terriyaki sauce and everyone is bringing something of their own making. Naturally we will be serving 'our' Celebration Ale.

Your ribs look very good. Come down sometime and I will cook my special ribs for you (some people have said that it is almost an 'out of body' experience to eat my ribs). I have about 25 years of experience doing it.............although usually by the time I am through cooking them, I am in an altered state as a result of beer or bourbon or some other libatiion.

Thanks for posting the pics!

Hmmmm, Bourbon Barrel Stout.......yep, a man oughta have him some of that!

Do not go gentle into that good night,Old age should burn and rage at close of day;Rage, rage against the dying of the light. - Dylan Thomas

Well, we had our tasting party last night. The real beer drinkers there liked our CA.

But..........my brewing partner and I were both somewhat disappointed in our beer. There was a lack of depth that we overlooked in the excitement of that first sip.

If this had been our first effort at beer making, we would have been very happy with the way it turned out, but, such is not the case. You guys (Mark and Bob) probably noted the same flaws that we did.........not enough body, not enought hops, and a bit too short on the finish. More hops would help some, but I am not sure that alone would have made this a first class beer. The body seems light even though we did use adjunct grains. But our sparging methods were primitive and probably did not extract enough flavor components from the non fermentables.

Still, it is a drinkable and refreshing beer, just not what we were aiming at. Ah, well, live and learn!

Do not go gentle into that good night,Old age should burn and rage at close of day;Rage, rage against the dying of the light. - Dylan Thomas

My brewing partner and I had a brewing party this weekend (see my other post on this). I took along the last three of our Celebration Ale homebrews, which have now been in the bottle about 7 months. Age has improved them significantly.

We had a number of first rate beers at the party and our CA was mite near as good as any of them. Several drinkers who had not tasted it before were wowed by it...........too bad it is all gone. New batch of homebrew in the pipeline now though!

And, my partner and I just brought home a case of the real 2006 CA so we won't be too sad!

Do not go gentle into that good night,Old age should burn and rage at close of day;Rage, rage against the dying of the light. - Dylan Thomas